Christian Science teaches that for effectual demonstration of its comforting truths, wisdom must join hands with love. Without wisdom, love temporarily finds no response. As students of this Science we must constantly watch to be sure that our words and acts stem from an understanding heart.
The pure desire to bless our fellowmen must be accompanied by a prayer for the same divine wisdom and spiritual love that turned Jesus to God, divine intelligence, for guidance. Christ Jesus' reflection of these qualities caused him to speak to Judas, his betrayer, the kind word, "Friend." Matt. 26:50 On other occasions these qualities enabled him fearlessly to rebuke self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and envy. To him, these false traits were impersonal evils, powerless to disrupt man's spiritual heritage as the son of God.
Through Christian Science we gain the wisdom to impersonalize evil. Only so can we rob it of its sting. Our constant prayer for wisdom and love must govern all of our relationships. We must express mercy as well as justice.
Where in Spirit's infinitude of wisdom and love is there place for self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and envy? Where in divine reflection is there place even for belief in the reality of a so-called sick, sinning, or faithless mortal? Had Jesus believed in the genuineness of a vengeful mortal, he could not have risen above belief in sin and death to resurrection and final ascension. He accomplished this elevation of experience by seeing all evil as an imposed belief of the unreal carnal mind. In this way he impersonalized evil and expressed the deathlessness of Love's divinity.
Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, states, "The noblest work of God is man in the image of his Maker; the last infirmity of evil is so-called man, swayed by the maelstrom of human passions, elbowing the concepts of his own creating, making place for himself and displacing his fellows."Miscellaneous Writings, p. 294 Where do we find a sinning, sick, or Pharisaical man? Surely not in the reflection of God's wisdom and love. Even in belief a mortal is found only in the mystification of personal sense. Governed by divine intelligence, the real man lives in the kingdom of heaven now. There is no other place for him to be. Through our expression of wisdom and love, evil is proved to be a nameless nothingness, powerless to change, falsify, or obstruct the true view of God's man, who is the pure reflection of Soul's integrity.
Christian Science shows the nothingness of evil's claim to personified wickedness. Only deceived mortal sense accepts evil as a somethingness. It is in truth but an imposition of a supposititious mortal mind, unknown to God, divine Mind. Yet "the maelstrom" of evil must not be ignored. Jesus' many rebukes to evil show how he wisely and lovingly refuted, disproved, and destroyed it. Following his example, an obedient Christian Scientist condemns error while at the same time separating it from an individual.
There is but one true spiritual consciousness, the steadfast reflection of divine intelligence. This consciousness is imbued with Christlike wisdom and love. It cannot change from harmony to inharmony or from life to death. Into an atmosphere of purity error's unreal, hateful, or ignorant unwisdom can find no entrance.
Jesus spoke of both the true and the false concept of man. He said not only, "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy,"Matt. 5:7 but also, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!"23:14 Yet Jesus knew that even the Pharisaical thought must eventually yield to Truth either through suffering or through spiritual awakening, as must all thought that does not reflect the wisdom and love of spiritual understanding.
Because he saw that evil is not an individual but is the impersonal persecutor of righteousness, our Way-shower rebuked all error through divine wisdom and love. And so his rebuke, while sometimes sharp, carried no sense of personal condemnation. Compassionately he rejected the darkened evidence of mortal sense and denied it reality and power. Yet he dealt unequivocally with error. He demanded individual spiritual regeneration as the surety of continued uprightness when he said to one whom he had healed, "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." John 5:14
In God's kingdom of divine ideas the sick man, the sin or the sinner, the fear or the victim of fear, are nonexistent. However, the fact that our Leader follows her description of the nobility of man in God's image with the vivid portrayal of the false sense of man, "swayed by the maelstrom of human passions," warns us that we must hold steadfastly and compassionately to the truth of man's spiritual being and live thereby. In no other way can we discern and demonstrate the spiritual unity of wisdom and love.
An example of the tender compassion and spiritual discernment of divine wisdom and love can be found in the testing time of a young Christian Scientist. In an interview with an experienced practitioner, he had expected to pour out his tale of illness and of the injustices being heaped upon him. When he found himself in the presence of the practitioner, his stored-up rebellion overflowed into words. How graciously understanding was the reception given him! How immediately comforting and wise were the words of truth spoken by his newfound friend! During the hour-long visit the young Scientist made no further reference to the worrisome affairs and his sick body. He had completely forgotten them after the first few minutes.
Upon reaching home, he hastened to open the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. He desired to find therein an explanation for the joyous replacement of rebellion, depression, illness, and fatigue with spiritual exaltation and physical healing. His eyes fell on these words: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." Science and Health, pp. 476, 477 The student added, "And the sinning." For there is no greater sin than to yield to the dark rebellion and unrealities of mortal belief. His friend's reflection of wisdom and love had changed his viewpoint. All injustices were immediately righted.
How wisely loving is the silent forbearance and compassion of the individual with an understanding heart! He discerns when it is right to withhold audible rebuke to error. Yet through his gentle expression of God's infinitely wise and tender love he shows the futility of undisciplined rebellion. With a spiritually quiet heart he knows no personal condemnation. He realizes Love's ever-present care and man's response to this care as the reflection of divine wisdom and Love.
